High Hopes and Betrayal: A Fremione Story
by lolanon
Summary: As the trio's life becomes more dangerous in their final years at Hogwarts, how will Hermione cope with relationships when the whole Wizarding World's fate seems to be put on her shoulders? Takes place in HBP-Post DH. FW/HG, tiny bit of HP/GW as well.


"Hermione! Hermione, wake up!" Hermione groaned and turned over, assuming it was much too early to be up. Ginny shook her once more and she opened her eyes. Her senses seemed to click and bright lights filled her vision and the smell of Mrs. Weasley's famous breakfast intertwined with the flowery scent Ginny's hair was emitting beside her.

Accepting defeat, Hermione lazily got out of bed and absentmindedly departed from the room she shared with Ginny, took care of the needs she had in the bathroom, and wandered downstairs to the Burrow's cramped kitchen. Taking her usual seat beside Ron, who was surprisingly awake and already digging in to breakfast before Hermione had even arrived, she began to eat.

"Alright you lot," Mrs. Weasley said to her entire fiery-haired family (with the exception of Percy) and Hermione, "Dumbledore will be here tomorrow morning with Harry. Ron, your room best be tidy or so help me…." Deciding it best not to argue, Ron simply grunted. Hermione glanced at him, suddenly realizing that the way he scoffed down scraps of bacon was repulsing.

In fact, she had been picking out small details about Ron that seemed to bother her ever since she had arrived at the Burrow three days ago. Having had a mischievous and rebellious fifth year, she and Ron had somewhat begun to fall for each other. Now that their eventful term had ended, Hermione was slowly coming to terms with the fact that Ron basically wasn't mature enough for her.

"Oi! Granger!" Hermione looked up, remembering that she was still at the table. Fred Weasley was sat across from her with his twin, George, to his right. "If you're not too busy dreaming about how great your snog with Ronald was last night—"  
>"FRED!" Mrs. Weasley had turned red. Hermione knew Mrs. Weasley was overjoyed that Hermione and her son's relationship seemed to be blossoming, and Hermione didn't have the heart to tell her that there, in actuality, was no snogging going on between herself and Ron (or anyone else for that matter.)<p>

"Oh, mum, it's fine. There was no snogging, by the way—"

"—at least not that we know of," George finished with a smirk on his face.

"Anyway, Hermione, I really would appreciate it if you would stop drooling over Ron and pass me the bloody salt." Did Hermione sense a hint of bitterness in Fred's voice? No, she must be imagining things; it was, after all, much too early to be awake.  
>"Oh—I—right…." Hermione flushed, handing him the salt. She could almost feel Ron's apprehensive glare, and from the corner of her eye she could see that his ears had turned red at the mere idea of kissing Hermione Granger.<p>

Reluctantly, Hermione spent the rest of her day with Ron. As she helped him clean below his bed under Mrs. Weasley's accusatory stare, she noticed how messy he really was. Honestly, she had never had much of a problem with it before, but now that people were practically waiting on edge for them to jump on each other and snog, it began to bother her.

After dinner, she started to make her way up to Ginny's room to recover from a long day full of cleaning and fishing for Ron's dirty socks from underneath his bed. _Boom!_ An explosion sounded from the room Hermione knew to be Fred and George's. Slightly irritated, she hustled to the door and knocked. She didn't wait for permission enter and barged in, trying to look more annoyed than she felt.

Their room was dark and cluttered with ingredients and products for their joke shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. The twins had left Hogwarts early last year due to their _foul_ headmistress, Dolores Umbridge, and had not much later begun their business. Hermione felt a sudden surge of admiration towards Fred and George, a feeling she had yet to feel towards them until now. Very few people liked Umbridge, and out of the whole lot of people who didn't, the twins were the only ones who took charge of their futures and left.

"Hey there Hermione," Fred said cheerfully from behind a box of what seemed to be various herbs. "Come to stay the night with us, have you? We're sure you already know that we'll be staying here for the remainder of the summer, as we need more room to test products and mum's too desperate to keep her two favorite sons at home; so desperate, in fact, that we actually feel a tinge of regret for leaving and doing our own laundry."  
>"Yeah, I bet Ron's told you that, considering the two of you have already seemed to lose your, er, romantic spark," George chimed in. Noticing Hermione's confused look, he added defensively, "Well, you two seem to be at a loss for interesting conversation!"<p>

"There is nothing going on between Ron and I," Hermione spat back. "And no, I've actually come in here to tell you to keep it down. Some of us want to sleep rather than stay up playing with explosives."

"Sorry Granger, I'm afraid we can't fulfill your request," said Fred. "You see, Georgie and I are out of school and have gone on to greater and bigger endeavors. Time is Galleons, Hermione, and we need new products fast." Then with a smirk at her irritated expression, her added, "I'm sure you can understand."

"Just keep it down and save it for tomorrow, will you?" Hermione growled.

She stomped out of the room into the dark hallway, and as she closed the door, she heard a Weasley twin's voice. "Can you believe how Hermione turned out, George?" Hermione paused outside the door, listening, startled at the mention of her name. "If I were Ron, and I bloody well have no desire to be such a prat, mind you, I'd treat her well. Not many girls come like that now, do they? Now, I think if we just add two more drops of that right there, there won't be any more explosions and Granger won't have to come down here again. Except, Granger coming down here again doesn't sound half bad, does it?"

Scrambling for a place to think without being disturbed, Hermione rushed upstairs to the room she was staying in. What was that about? Was Fred jealous of Ron? Allowing her thoughts to swim in her mind, she fell asleep. Harry would be here tomorrow, and she couldn't let some silly boy get in the way of Harry's needed comfort after his godfather's death.

She awoke in the dead of night with a stinging urge for a glass of water. Tiptoeing out of bed, she made her way downstairs. Hermione paused outside Fred and George's room, hearing mumbling, and shaking her head at the ridiculous time of night they were awake. As soon as she turned to continue downstairs, she heard voices coming from the kitchen.

"He just doesn't understand…." The voice Hermione recognized as Tonks' whimpered. "I know he feels as I do, but he just won't come to his senses!"  
>"Oh, just give him time," Mrs. Weasley said consolingly. "He's only hesitant because he wants the best."<p>

Confused at what she was hearing and not wanting to interrupt, Hermione turned around and began to head back to bed. A door behind her quietly creaked open and Fred poked his head out of his room.

"Oh, it's you, Granger. We were just wondering who was moping over some 'hesitant' bloke. You and Ron have hit a bump in the road to romance, eh?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed, "No, Fred, that's Tonks talking to your mum downstairs. She seems to be having issues far beyond _your_ emotional range of understanding. And if you must know, I have no desire whatsoever to go down a romantic path with Ron… anymore. So there, you can stop annoying us now, can't you?" She gave him an appraising look in the dim hallway, taking in his deep blue eyes and ginger hair. He was, in all honesty, quite good-looking.

"So you're a free woman now, are you?" he replied with a mischievous glare.

Hermione, taken back by his look, lamely nodded and turned to walk away. Suddenly she felt a hand on her waste and Fred's face was inches away from her own. The two of them stood there, intertwined tightly, Fred's hands on her waste, and Hermione's around his neck. They both leaned in for a kiss, somewhat hesitantly, but stopped, now only centimeters apart, at George's voice coming from inside the nearest bedroom.

"Fred! What's taking so long? Haven't been caught by mum, have you?" he called out quietly. Fred took one look at Hermione, reluctantly let go over her waste, and walked back to his room quietly. She stood there, shocked at what had just happened and how fast it had occurred.

Hermione's head spun as she lied in bed, waiting for sleep to take her.

**AN: so this is my first fic and I honestly have no idea where I'm going with it so suggestions would be lovely. Be honest if you review!**

**I'll try and update as much as I can and uh yeah idk I think that's it. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter and I felt rushed to add some tension because it was rather boring without that little bit at the end. Let me know what you think!**


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